No picture w/Santa Paws this year d/t Bella recovering from surgery.

This is the Santa Paws 2015 visit.

And again.

 Yeah. Wow.

Bella turned a big 8 yrs. old last January. She's quickly on her way to becoming a 9 year old.
She has a renewed energy. It's like she's in her 2nd puppy hood.

Pinto celebrated his 2nd gotcha day this past August. He is such a good little man and is to be commended for helping Bella enter her senior dog days with such vim and vigor.

I haven't posted on here since last year. Wish I could say that that was going to change and posts will become more frequent. But.... maybe if i become independently wealthy or something.

The last time the dogs were here, they had gone to have their picture taken w/Santa Paws at the Lake Humane Society. This event is happening again this weekend & is a fun way to support homeless cats & dogs.

I don't know if i will put the dogs through this again. We'll see. Most likely i will. lol

Awww ... Shelter dogs need you.

Every animal needs a home. Look at the change in these adopted sweeties. http://www.buzzfeed.com/chelseamarshall/adopt-yo-dog#.piN5EWmk9

Visit w/Santa Paws 2014

Geeeez - Hope nobody calls the ASPCA or PETA on me for dog abuse. They both look Terrified!!

Cooper Loves Ice Cream

Ha Ha. I love big dog, little dog. My dogs are hogs when it comes to ice cream, but at least they leave me a little bit. 

ice cream w. dogs

 This blog has not been updated all summer. Wish i could say that Bella, Pinto and I were busy having way too much fun to worry about writing about it. But the truth is Summer was like Winter for this hooman - only warmer.

So, explores were few & walks were pretty much limited to around the neighborhood.

But, we were able to celebrate Pinto's Gotcha Day with a nice long hike in the park, a trip to Petsmart for a new toy and a stop for ice cream.

We stopped at a place close to home called Scooters. They serve a generous doggy bowl of ice cream topped w/ a milk bone. Very exciting..... for awhile anyway....

 

Pinto noticed I had something different......

And......

Bella, never the one to be wasteful, ate all of her doggy bowl. And then....

Ha Ha

If dogs could text

Much better

Bella's knees have gotten so much better. The other day she, Pinto and I went on a walk in the park. My intention was to only walk for about 40 minutes or so.  However, my girl has an elephant memory. She remembered that if we just went a little further, we would get to that really cool place beside the river where she gets to run off leash. And i, being the pushover that i am, went with it.

Our short walk became a 2 hour hike.  We did not go to the exact place that Bella was thinking of, but halfway. She got to go into the river and she got to run off leash a bit. Her leash had gotten wedged in between the trunks of 2 fallen trees. I had to remove her leash in order to free it.

Oh my.... For her to be free and the puppy to be leashed was the coolest thing in her mind. She started doing bird dog zoomies complete with deep deep play bows to Pinto.

It was both horrifying and wonderful to see. I was calling to her to come, be careful. At the same time i was so happy to see her run so well. Her eyes were shining with joy.

The best thing is that the walk and the running did not seem to affect her poorly. I thought she would be quite sore and stiff the following day. But, she moved fine.

Letting her run like that is certainly not something i would do frequently. But, that day was a good day.

Pinto and Bella resting during their 2 hour walk. Their fur is still wet from romping in the river. 

Visit to Santa Paws 2013

 I thought maybe this year would be different. 

Maybe Bella would warm up to the man in the red suit. 

For sure Pinto would like him. Pinto likes everyone. Absolutely everyone.

Except Santa Paws.  

It's in the eyes. Check out the eyes. Even Santa looks a little worried. 

In everyone's defense, the whole ordeal wasn't as stress free as it could've been. We arrived early enough - time to wait & acclimate to our surroundings. However, the wait to see Santa was longer than I had. 

 We had to leave and go back. 

We were the last photo of the day. 

Rushed in, snapped it & rushed out. 

I guess everyone was pretty good considering. 

Perhaps one of the years we will have this kind of picture

http://www.furryfriendsrescue.org/events/view/59


Or this kind:

http://www.lonestarcountrystore.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/christmas-santa-dog.jpg

LOL! 

I am happy enough with what we got though. In fact, it was holiday card worthy. 

Unfortunately, real non-holiday life got busy & I was a bit too late finishing the card. 

So,  belated wishes for a happy holiday.

Many thanks to the Kind folks at Lake Humane Society for having Santa Paws visit again.

And thanks especially to the bake sale ladies for telling me that my dogs were "good" and not nearly as wound up as some of the other dogs that came through that day.  :)

A Christmas Greeting from Your Pets

puppy for Christmas?

Remember....

 picture found here

Pinto

Pinto has been with us for 2 months now. 

He is quite interesting. He is soooo different from zen master Bella. 

While Bella was an active puppy, she also always wanted to be around us. She was very focused on what was being said to her and appeared to enjoy it when we talked to her. She always seemed to have this innate wisdom .. an understanding  about her.

Pinto?  Not so much. We call him Mr. Independent. He has no problem spending a large amount of time outside by himself doing...... only dog knows what.  

But  he can also be Mr. Leetle. This is when he rolls on his back or just seems to make himself small.  & asks for lovin's

     

 He usually prefers to not be snuggled. Too cool for that. 

~~~~~

In a 7 day period, Pinto tried to climb the big oak tree out back, jumped out of a moving car window & started working on digging a trench in the back yard. 

Hard at work digging ditches

& he eats EVERYTHING. Just everything. He is like a fish that swims around with its mouth open foraging plankton and what not from the ocean floor. Pinto just sucks in ..... i don't know.... whatever. The mantra in our house has become, "Pinto! drop it! Pinto, what are you eating. Oh my god! Don't eat that! Geez Pinto! What the hell?"

~~~~

Bella also picked up on training easily and quickly. She knew how sit and down and come and was happy to do so. She worked with the zest of a border collie. 

Pinto? Well, he'll get there. He's very smart. He knows to work for food. No food? Meh. No work. 

But the good thing is that he looooves Bella. And Bella is becoming fond of him.  He is quite good for her. She has been walking smoother and appears to be getting stronger since Pinto came to town. 

And he has attached himself to my husband quite effectively.  He is a daddy's boy. 

And, I must admit that he is pretty darn cute. So, I guess he can stay for a while longer.

Yeah - we did this

Timothy Patrick Barkivious Pinto

born????

Gotcha date - August 10, 2013

sad dog diary

Funny. May be more appropriate for grownups than children - just fyi. But funny. 

I am such a sucker for these kind of videos. I can & do watch them over and over. :)

http://myquoteshome.com/tag/quotes-about-dogs/page/4/

Do you want this cat?

This poor kitty needs a new home. She seems like a very nice cat. & the guy must love her very much to put up a You Tube video for her.

Do you want this cat?

oh the places you go

Since Bella has injured her knee, our walks have been limited to the back yard,  down the street a little ways, sometimes around the block. She appears to getting a bit stronger and has been able to go to her "little park by the lake" a couple of times & also enjoyed some time walking in the river a few days ago.
But no long walks in the park yet. Maybe later in the summer, maybe not until next year.

I miss my hiking buddy. Given my druthers, i would hang out in a park all day every day in nice weather. There are so many wonderful parks to explore around here. Back in the day - pre crazy job and marriage -  day hikes were frequent. My son was a wonderful off trail partner until he became too cool.  But, when Bella came into my world, walks were a must. Soo... I was once again able to hang with the trees, sniff the breeze, explore both on trail (and off...shhh ;)) on a pretty regular basis.

 Bella is always ready to go .... somewhere. Seeing one of us put on our shoes is impetus for a big doggy stretch. Even a ride to the store is good for her. She loves to hang out in the driver's seat people watching. Having a partner who is ready for adventure pretty much all the time - even when i would prefer to stay inside - is pretty cool. She makes sure that i get out in all types of weather.

Bella is a pretty good listener. She is one of those dogs who doesn't want to be too far away from her person. I'm just lucky like that. Or maybe it's because of all the time put into training her. Whatever the reason, walking w/her off leash has never been too stressful.

Most training methods teach that the person is the "alpha" and must always act like the alpha - controlling every and any thing the dog does. Some people even train their dogs to poop and pee on command  which is good for dogs that compete or maybe live in the city or something.

And of course, on a walk the dog simply follows the alpha, only going where she is permitted. Again, there are times when that is helpful and even necessary. Truth be told, i wish we would have been more consistent when training leash manners with Bell. She can be a complete tyrant on walks. But, often she is a wonderfully agreeable hiking partner who, when given the chance has sniffed out some fantastic things that i probably wouldn't have discovered on my own.

Take the dog park for instance. Of course, i never went to the dog park before Bella. And the dog park isn't a very exciting place to go really. Some dog parks are set up very well with fountains and trails and trees and stuff. Ours is simply a field with a couple of picnic benches. There was one summer when we had to carry our own water it b/c the city wouldn't turn the hose on for some reason and if you don't have poop bags with you, be prepared to sling it a shovel that is usually there.
But, if i hadn't taken Bella to the dog park at the right time of day, i never would've seen this:
These trees sit at the edge of the fence. They provide no shade and just seem to mingle with the brush.
But they come alive at twilight.

 

This one especially is cool. I see a  hound dog poking his nose to the sky howling for the moon. Very apropos for a dog park.
















And the discoveries we made behind the dog park. I had no idea that my town has victory gardens and the fees are very affordable. Good to know if we ever become apartment dwellers again.

Also, behind the dog park was a bunch of cool trails! Yeah! trails! with a cool creek and everything.

Venturing further back we met up with the river.

And then found a way to get down to the river taking time to rest in these big plants on the way. 

If not for Bella, i would spend my entire winter scurrying hunchbacked and cranky from someplace warm to car then from car to someplace warm. I am not a fan of cold weather. But, the lake is beautiful in the winter.

And  a rainy day gives us the trail to ourselves.

The really cool thing about walking with Bella is this: she can find the coolest places. Often when i just released the idea that i had to control where we went, we ended up in some really nice places. 

I mean, we're talking about hanging out with a dog. The only thing on a dog's to do list is to explore and experience each moment. & maybe have a little cheese when they can. 

Maybe it's simply because dogs are shorter than humans that they pick up on cool things that we miss? Or perhaps, probably it's because a dog really has no agenda except to enjoy whatever. They are the most zen of creatures that never seem to lose that wonderful sense of curiosity and wonder of the world.

Bella reminds me to take time to smell the flowers

and to get enough fiber in my diet

but not too take my diet too harshly. Allow some pig out food from time to time.

 






Bella reminds me to work towards balance

to take time for quiet contemplation & enjoy the beauty of the earth

 

And to remember to play

This tree is at Holden. I don't know the name of it but it has a wonderful little opening in its bottom branches that takes one to a very comfortable elfin style hideaway. There is plenty of room to sit and think under these droopy branches. I would've never stopped to investigate had i not been with Bella & she had not insisted that we go a bit further.

I call this tree the "elephant tree" because its trunk reminded me of an elephant's trunk lifting up towards the sky. 

Then there was the time that I thought we would hike in a familiar part of the park only to have Bella insist that we cross the road. 

Agreement with her resulted in the discovery of a most beautiful and private place beside the Chagrin river. 

We had to hike a far bit to get there but it was totally worth it. 

It's a rocky litte river beach that we have visited at least once every summer since. 

There are many other beautiful spots that have been discovered thanks to Bella's wonderful nose for curiosity.  But i have been working on this post way too long and must concede to my time limitations and just get the durn thing posted already. 

But.... one more share: Bella insisted on going to the river at Chagrin River Park (aka Crazy Deer park). Then, she insisted on crashing headlong into a deer trail that runs beside the river. I  followed behind picking through tall grasses and nettles getting a bit cranky, hollering to my dog to slow down. Instead of listening, she made a hard left leading me deeper into the reeds and cattails and then into a clearing filled with wildflowers and  Monarch butterflies. 

Yes, i said filled with butterflies.  Butterflies were everywhere - flitting from one flower to another. So many beautiful butterflies.  I can't describe to you how grateful I felt to witness so much beauty. 

Bella and I simply stood in quiet awe. Then she looked at me, tongue lolling, eyes twinkling. She seemed to be saying " I thought you would like this."